Beijing: The Bookworm — Praise A City for A Bookstore

Located in Gunshi courtyard in south road of Sanlitun Village, the Bookworm is the most active foreign language bookstore, or library. And some people think it is just a coffeehouse with abundant books.

The Bookworm will hold various regular activities every week, such as guessing game, cocktail party, and Classical music appreciation etc. In addition, it would invite some writers and hold readers meeting. There are 16,000 books totally. Readers can buy it, or get a membership card to borrow out, or just do the reading in the store. There are three halls in the Bookworm. Visitors usually read over the coffee and the delicious meals.

In addition to Beijing, the Bookworm also set up branches in Suzhou and Chengdu. The largest activity held by the Bookworm is the annual Bookworm International Literary Festival. During the festival, 60 to 80 famous writers from countries around the world, including China, will be invited to the three bookstores. The previous guests includes Omar Musa, Péter Zilahy, Nir Baram etc and Chinese writers such as Mo Yan, Yan Lianke and Bi Feiyu etc.

In the famous travel book 2011 Lonely Planet, it selected the top ten libraries in the world and the bookworm is one of them. It is also the only one selected bookstore in Asia. In the bookstore, you would see visitors from different countries.